My luck held, for he was actually breaking his journey for half an hour here, at Beechfield!" He was talking rather quickly now, as if at last aware of something painful, awkward, in the atmosphere.
"Others all out ?" he asked.

"Perhaps you'll show me my room, godson ?" "Wouldn't you like to see Nanna ?" asked Timmy officiously.

"She's so looking forward to seeing you.

She wants to thank you for the big Shetland shawl she supposes you sent her last Christmas, and she has an idea that the little real silver teapot she got on her birthday came from you too.

It has on it 'A Present for a Good Girl.'" * * * * * As Radmore followed Timmy up the once familiar staircase, he felt extraordinarily moved.
How strange the thought that while not only his own life, but the lives of all the people with whom he had been so intimately associated, had changed--this old house had remained absolutely unaltered! Nothing had been added--as far as he could see--and nothing taken away, and yet the human atmosphere was quite other than what it had been ten years ago.
Just now, in the moment of meeting, he had avoided asking Betty about George.